I only played the first one and never had the feeling I would want to play a second one. Towards the "endgame" already the first felt quite grindy to me, and that was enough for my personal taste.

Oh man, I haven't played the second one, but the first one I felt was pretty grindy. Are you saying that it's even more grindier in the second one? That's disappointing I ultimately stopped once I unlocked the research area in the first one because the game became too much of a grind.

edit: I typod. I'm comparing the first to the second, saying the first was pretty grindy.

The addition of weather events and weather-related slimes definitely doesn't help